Robot localization using an uncalibrated PSD servoing approach

In this paper, our recently developed high precision robot localization system employing high resolution (0.5 mum) position sensitive devices (PSD) is presented. The system is comprised of a structured laser pointer system attached to the robot end-effector and a PSD fixture. It is capable of feeding back the movement information of the TCP relative to the PSD frame. This is achieved by detecting the position of the laser beams emitted from the laser pointers onto the PSD surface. The system was well designed, mapped, and constructed and hence allows it to perform precision localization of the robot. Simulations and preliminary experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed PSD guided localization system including the hardware, the software, and the uncalibrated algorithms.